Reducing the risk of more intense wildfires also helps avoid a scarred landscape and erosion. “Those hotter fires create areas where seeds can’t germinate because there isn’t any living bio underneath the soil,” he says. “By getting ahead of that, we’re actually creating a much healthier site in the event of a fire, because of that reduced intensity.” There’s a scarcity of grazing operations in Marin County and so the city is currently working with businesses from outside the area. For those Marin County
landowners who are interested in having grazing done, we spoke with one Sonoma County grazing operation that will travel to them. Chasin Goat Grazing in Sonoma and Marin Chase Cianfichi and his wife Emma own Chasin Goat Grazing. “We’re happy to come take a look at any property over there and we give free estimates,” Cianfichi says. We spoke with him about all that goes
is either a mix of forested areas or areas that are deep chaparral and brush or environmentally sensitive. Grazing costs and budget constraints so far mean they need to stick to the acreage that is closer to residents. “We’re actually performing some larger-scale vegetation work, in an area known as the San Rafael - San Anselmo Fuel Reduction Zone,” Schrader says. “In areas like that, we’re removing invasive plants. We’re removing invasive eucalyptus and broom. We plan on potentially using goats or other methods to remove those flashy fuels and maintain them.” Schrader and his team consult with geologists, botanists and biologists to ensure the grazing is environmentally friendly and sustainable. They’ve already seen a positive impact on the landscape during a fire. “One site that we have an ignition on pretty much every single year is San Rafael Hill, which is very close to central San Rafael,” he says. “So we graze that annually.” Last year firefighters responded to a fire there. “When it reached that fuel break where the grazing had occurred, they were able to stop it and keep it to a fire that was less than 5 acres,” Schrader says. “When they’re able to go there and do direct attack on these fires because they’re low intensity in these areas that have been grazed, they’re able to do it in a much safer way for the firefighters and prevent it from becoming a larger fire than it would have otherwise,” he says. “These grasses in California historically have either been burned by the Coastal Miwok people here in San Rafael, or through natural circumstances over hundreds and hundreds of years,” Schrader says. “Only recently have we really stopped this fire regime for people to start living here. And with that, we’ve seen this increase in fuels and fuel loading.” Schrader says that bringing grazing animals back to these areas is returning them to a more natural state. “We’re seeing less brush and more grasses, more annuals and more native species in these areas than we do in areas that are not grazed,” Schrader says. “There definitely are a lot of environmental benefits.”
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